On Tuesday, March 23, Utah Valley University will host its second annual conference on U.S. torture issues, titled, “Torture and America: Past, Present and Future.” The event doesn’t shy away from important and troublesome issues facing the United States; subjects under discussion will include extraordinary rendition, psychological torture and the effect of Guantanamo Bay on its prisoners.

“It’s a story that most of the UVU students don’t know much about. It’s all part of our nation’s very recent history,” said Alan Clarke, professor of integrated studies at UVU, who will speak on extraordinary rendition at the conference. “And it’s an important story. It’s a question of the nation’s moral compass and whether or not the nation has lived up to the principles on which it was founded and on which it supposedly operates.”

Clarke is currently working on a book about extraordinary rendition, a controversial method of information gathering and torture that slides under the restrictions of international law.

Other speakers will include Alfred McCoy, the J.R.W. Smail professor of history at University of Wisconsin-Madison, who will address the development and use of psychological torture and the CIA’s involvement in such methods; and Brent Rushforth, J.D., a lawyer whose pro-bono client is Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, a Guantanamo Bay prisoner whose incarceration was ruled as unjustified and who was released after spending seven years in the prison. The conference also includes an hour-long panel discussion about torture in America.

The conference will begin at 10 a.m. on the first floor of the UVU Library, room 120. The room can be found in the southeast area of the first floor. Visitor parking is available for a fee in Lot L, just southeast of the Library. For more information, please visit http://www.uvu.edu/is/events/torture.